Turns out, that my post about dialling down notifications, can be summed up much more eloquently:
The consequences of ignoring or deferring incoming messages until you’re ready to review them are abstract and vastly overestimated, while the consequences of being that asshole who keeps checking his iPhone at dinner are very real.
A great post, with many more gems like the above.
If, like me, you are turning 30 this year, this blog post from economist, not novelist, Stephen King, makes an interesting and inspiring observation that we have an extra decade of life expectancy, compared to previous generations:
An extra decade of ’20s’ provides an opportunity for young people to take risks that become difficult or impossible once they have family commitments. You can start the dream business and it doesn’t really matter if it fails. You can continue with further study because it really doesn’t matter whether you start your career in your early 20s or late 20s. You can carry out your dreams before entering the formal workforce.
I like the idea of taking your extra decade during your 20s rather than your 80s.
Benjamin Law has published a piece in the AFR today headed “Has Labor lost Gen Y?“. This is a fine opinion piece, that is long overdue. It is so long overdue that Ben, or his sub-editor, is being kind to the ALP by phrasing it as a question. Honestly, it should be “Labor has lost Gen Y”.
The piece sums up how many people that I know feel about the ALP, and the current state of Australian Politics with neat summaries like this:
We’ve been burned too many times. It started when Rudd put a rain check on the great moral and economic challenge of our time. It continued when Gillard announced she was atheist, but still against same-sex marriage, alienating every Australian voter who respected logic.
He also provides an explanation for voting for the Greens that is probably one of the most requested by ALP-voting parents of Gen Y:
For voters like me, the Greens don’t seem radical any more: they’re simply occupying some of the political space Labor left vacant years ago. Plus the Greens have professionalised, filling their ranks with level-headed, media-savvy, intelligent MPs and candidates who have backgrounds in law, agriculture, design, social science, science, public health and medicine. They have become votable. Which is why I’ve voted for them, and probably will again. Looking at the voting data, I know I’m not alone.
So far, so good. Benjamin makes a number of other excellent points along the way, but after decrying the lack of a “long-term aspirational vision”, he is, as they say, hoisted by his own petard, with a similar lack of vision by suggesting that:
If you’re young and still believe in the party that gave us solid IR laws, allowed women control over their reproductive rights and gave indigenous people native title and an apology, now is the time to sign up…you could very well be our next prime minister.
I disagree. The ALP must be pretty broken if the cream of the crop, or at least those who can rise to the top, are people like Craig Thompson. What hope does have this putative prime minister have?
I reckon that now is the perfect time, or at least as good a time as ever, for the Kevin Rudd’s and Malcolm Turnbull’s of our generation to create a better alternative for future voters. A party that is socially progressive on issues like same-sex marriage, climate change and refugees combined with an economic platform that makes them a genuinely electable and viable force. A party with vision, is that too much to ask?
They would have my vote. I dare say that they would have Malcolm Turnbull’s and Kevin Rudd’s as well.
It is now roughly 15 months since I left Melbourne for Hanoi.
Leaving Melbourne for Hanoi, I was looking for excitement and the opportunity to live in a completely different city. I really loved Melbourne, but I felt that having travelled to a few places overseas, but never lived anywhere else, I really wanted to live overseas. The city that I ended up in was Hanoi, Vietnam.
Hanoi is very different to Melbourne, except in a few ways:
All of the above, and many other things, are great things about Hanoi. However, this is neither a travel blog nor a blog about Hanoi. There are plenty of excellent examples of those already.
However, I do want to consider the one thing that I didn’t expect Hanoi to give me; a different perspective on the city in which I spent my first 29 years. Unlike some other foreigners in Hanoi, who, for various reasons, appear somewhat disdainful of their hometowns, my absence from Melbourne has made my affection for Melbourne increase. I really do miss Melbourne. Mostly, this is due to missing my friends and family, but partly I miss the city itself.
Walking in the winter in Hanoi recently, I strangely began reminiscing about walking from the MCG through the backstreets of East Melbourne, Fitzroy and Collingwood. The quiet, crisp air, winter sunlight and terrace houses evoke a series of memories of student life, painful football matches, young love and Paul Kelly that I will always associate with those backstreets. Similarly, some less appealing parts of Hanoi, mainly the pollution and dreary skies, have made me long for blue skies and clean air of Melbourne (a longing I have never experienced before).
Surprisingly, I have also become a staunch advocate of Melbourne in any discussion where the merits or otherwise of various cities in Australia has even tangentially arisen. Often, this is lighthearted banter with Sydney-siders, but it has made me appreciate that Melbourne is truly a great city, worthy of being advocated for in the same manner that New Yorkers proclaim that New York is the “Greatest City in the World”.
I will be returning to Melbourne in a few weeks time.
For what it’s worth, my newfound perspective on Melbourne means that I plan to drop any cultural cringe that I hold about Melbourne and remain a passionate believer in Melbourne’s future as an important cultural, sporting and intellectual city. With the current vision of Australia seemingly to be the farm and quarry of Asia, there is work to be done to ensure that Melbourne remains such a great city.
